Gillian King has worked in teaching and research in paleontology, as Assistant Curator at the Zoological Collections at Oxford University Museum, and a Fellow and Tutor as St Hilda's College, Oxford. She spent 15 years at Oxford and five years at the South African Museum in Cape Town, where she specialised in dicynodonts. She also has degrees from Oxford and a qualification in training and development.She moved to Cambridge, and is currently an administrator at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Newnham College. She has worked with staff and undergraduates as a trainer for the national Springboard women's development programme.